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The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind

  
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INTRODUCTION. THE ERA OF CROWDS.

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BOOK I. THE MIND OF CROWDS.
 1.1. 
CHAPTER I. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CROWDS. — PYSCHOLOGICAL LAW OF THEIR MENTAL UNITY.
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CHAPTER II. THE SENTIMENTS AND MORALITY OF CROWDS.
 1.2.1. 
§ 1. IMPULSIVENESS, MOBILITY, AND IRRITABILITY OF CROWDS.
 1.2.2. 
§ 2. THE SUGGESTIBILITY AND CREDULITY OF CROWDS.
 1.2.3. 
§ 3. THE EXAGGERATION AND INGENUOUSNESS OF THE SENTIMENTS OF CROWDS.
 1.2.4. 
§ 4. THE INTOLERANCE, DICTATORIALNESS AND CONSERVATISM OF CROWDS.
 1.2.5. 
§ 5. THE MORALITY OF CROWDS.
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CHAPTER III. THE IDEAS, REASONING POWER, AND IMAGINATION OF CROWDS.
 1.3.1. 
§ 1. THE IDEAS OF CROWDS.
 1.3.2. 
§ 2. THE REASONING POWER OF CROWDS.
 1.3.3. 
§ 3. THE IMAGINATION OF CROWDS.
 1.4. 
CHAPTER IV. A RELIGIOUS SHAPE ASSUMED BY ALL THE CONVICTIONS OF CROWDS.
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BOOK II. THE OPINIONS AND BELIEFS OF CROWDS.
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CHAPTER I. REMOTE FACTORS OF THE OPINIONS AND BELIEFS OF CROWDS.
 2.1.1. 
§ 1. RACE.
 2.1.2. 
§ 2. TRADITIONS.
 2.1.3. 
§ 3. TIME.
 2.1.4. 
§ 4. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS.
 2.1.5. 
§ 5. INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATION.
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CHAPTER II. THE IMMEDIATE FACTORS OF THE OPINIONS OF CROWDS.
 2.2.1. 
§ 1. IMAGES, WORDS, AND FORMULAS.
 2.2.2. 
§ 2. ILLUSIONS.
 2.2.3. 
§ 3. EXPERIENCE.
 2.2.4. 
§ 4. REASON.
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CHAPTER III. THE LEADERS OF CROWDS AND THEIR MEANS OF PERSUASION.
 2.3.1. 
§ 1. THE LEADERS OF CROWDS.
 2.3.2. 
§ 2. THE MEANS OF ACTION OF THE LEADERS: AFFIRMATION, REPETITION, CONTAGION.
 2.3.3. 
§ 3. PRESTIGE.
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CHAPTER IV. LIMITATIONS OF THE VARIABILITY OF THE BELIEFS AND OPINIONS OF CROWDS.
 2.4.1. 
§ 1. FIXED BELIEFS.
 2.4.2. 
§ 2. THE CHANGEABLE OPINIONS OF CROWDS.
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BOOK III. THE CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CROWDS.
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CHAPTER I. THE CLASSIFICATION OF CROWDS.
 3.1.1. 
§ 1. HETEROGENEOUS CROWDS.
 3.1.2. 
§ 2. HOMOGENEOUS CROWDS.
 3.2. 
CHAPTER II. CROWDS TERMED CRIMINAL CROWDS.
 3.3. 
CHAPTER III. CRIMINAL JURIES.
 3.4. 
CHAPTER IV. ELECTORAL CROWDS.
 3.5. 
CHAPTER V. PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLIES.

  
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§ 1. RACE.

This factor, race, must be placed in the first rank, for in itself it far surpasses in importance all the others. We have sufficiently studied it in another work; it is therefore needless to deal with it again.

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We showed, in a previous volume, what an historical race is, and how, its character once formed, it possesses, as the result of the laws of heredity such power that its beliefs, institutions, and arts — in a word, all the elements of its civilisation — are merely the outward expression of its genius. We showed that the power of the race is such that no element can pass from one people to another without undergoing the most profound transformations.
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The novelty of this proposition being still considerable and history being quite unintelligible without it, I devoted four chapters to its demonstration in my last book ("The Psychological Laws of the Evolution of Peoples"). From it the reader will see that, in spite of fallacious appearances, neither language, religion, arts, or, in a word, any element of civilisation, can pass, intact, from one people to another.

Environment, circumstances, and events represent the social suggestions of the moment. They may have a considerable influence, but this influence is always momentary if it be contrary to the suggestions of the race; that is, to those which are inherited by a nation from the entire series of its ancestors.

We shall have occasion in several of the chapters of this work to touch again upon racial influence, and to show that this influence is so great that it dominates the characteristics peculiar to the genius of crowds. It follows from this fact that the crowds of different countries offer very considerable differences of beliefs and conduct and are not to be influenced in the same manner.

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